Funniest Badly-Translated Ads

When it comes to advertising, we've come a long way, baby. All of these marketing slogans and brand names were perfectly fine... in English. However, once they were translated into other languages they took on hilarious new meanings!

KFC

When American fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing in 1987, they accidentally translated KFC's famous slogan, “Finger-lickin' good” to “We'll Eat Your Fingers Off!” in Chinese.

Coors

U.S. beer-making giant Coors apparently thought their slogan, “Turn it loose!” would translate to Spanish just fine. Unfortunately, “Turn it Loose” came out, “Suffer from Diarrhea” instead. Frankly, if you've ever had Coors... this slogan isn't too far off the mark.

Clairol

In 2006, hair care company Clairol introduced a curling iron called the Mist Stick, which did very well in U.S. markets. When the company marketed the product in Germany, however, they failed to realize that “mist” means “manure” in German. Oddly enough, the “Manure Stick” didn't sell so well in Germany.

Milk

The American Dairy Association was so successful with its "Got Milk?" campaign, that they decided to extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Spanish translation is "Are you lactating?" Kind of a personal question, we think!

Pepsi

Puffs brand tissues are quite popular in the U.S. A., however, their quest for global marketing ran into a few snags due to their name. In Germany, "Puff" is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. In England, a similar word,“Pouf,” is an offensive term for homosexual.

Ford Pinto

The Ford Motor Company introduced the subcompact Pinto in 1971. The company couldn't understand why they weren't selling more cars in Brazil, until they learned that “Pinto” is Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals.”

Braniff Airlines

In 1977 Braniff Airlines only meant to advertise the leather seats they'd installed in First Class, bheir slogan, “Fly in leather” translated for Spanish-speaking markets as, “Vuela en cuero,” which means “Fly naked.” Let's hope they at least bring a towel to sit on!

Parker Pens

When Parker Pen's famous slogan “It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you” was translated into Spanish, it confused many Mexican consumers who read it as, “It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke- la," meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or the equally hilarious, "female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Coke then researched to find a phonetic equivalent "ko-kou-ko- le," translating into "happiness in the mouth."

Mitsubishi Pajero

Mitsubishi decided to NOT translate (localize) "Pajero", their model. "Pajero" is slang for "Wanker" in Spanish. It sold poorly. In Argentina, "pajero" means wanker... so this car in Argentina is called Montero. 

Chana Motors

In Brazil, Chinese Chana Motors is not achieving the same business status as other oriental car companies, probably because 'chana' is a local popular nickname for the female genitals. 

Honda Fitta / Jazz

Honda Fit/Honda Jazz debuted in June 2001 in Japan and immediately became a big hit. Honda originally intended to name the car "Fitta", but shortened the name in some markets, and renamed it completely in others, upon discovering that in several Nordic languages, fitta is a popular and very vulgar slang word for vulva.

Chevrolet Nova

In the 70's Chevy had a great car called the Nova. It didn't sell well in Mexico since the literal translation of No Va = Doesn't Go!

Pert Shampoo

Pert in french looks like "Perte" which means "loss" so they had to change the name to "prêt" which means "ready" beacause nobody wanted to buy a shampoo that makes Hair Loss.

Credit : /www.oddee.com